unlocking System preferences
After installing Monterey I'm no more able to unlock System Preferences using my administrator account and password
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.0
I access as system administrator and my password isn't blank
Question marked as
My admin account was changed to a standard account after installing upgrade. I tried lots of things: safe mode, recovery mode, reinstallation, none of those worked. what worked was torestart in recovery mode, slecting disk utility, mount the "Macintosh HD" volume using Disk Utility, close disk utility, select "terminal" from Utilities menu.
THen from utilities I had to delete the .AppleSetUpdone file. sorry, I can't find the link that guided me through this. I had to change directories (cd /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"/var/db) but that took a few steps - it didn't like the full phrase I just typed so I did it in steps. then I checked the file was there by using the "ls" command to list files. Then I removed the file by typing rm .AppleSetUpdone. Then I rebooted. This leads to restarting as though you are a new user so foolllow through those commands and eventually you have to set up an account for the Mac. Pick a new account "BackupAdmin" and a new password, and you will at last have an admin account again. when you log on with that account you can change your old (preferred) login from "Standard" back to "admin." do what you want with the backup
I still have two versions of all my standard apps and while I have seen this problem in the support chats with BigSur, it looks like there is no easy fix - just painstakingly delete the old app files. Monterey is a mess so far.
21 replies
Ouch but if it works for your needs - that is important.
Very Best
Okay, I'll give that a go.
I have a 2017 iMac. I'm not much of a computer person and think we were still using High Sierra before upgrading so it was a big update.
Fantastic!! Great to hear. I'm sure a big relief (as it was to me). Have a great New Year!
it is but shameless OS update by apple do not want to fix it.
Hi,
I had the exact same issue after upgrading to Monterey. I was no longer able to change System Preferences or install new software because I would be asked for username and password. It SHOULD be the same password as you use to log into the computer, but alas, the computer doesn't accept it. Kept giving me the shaking-because-you-have-the-wrong-password thang.
After a bunch of online research, I figured out that the issue is that my username was switched to be a "Standard" user, not an "Admin" user. So... effectively there was NO admin user on my account, thus no way to enter an admin username and password.
The solution is you need to trick the computer into running Setup Assistant again, so you can create a new user. That new user will automatically have admin rights. And then when you log in with that user, you can turn on admin rights for your original username.
I contacted Apple Support, and did a ton more research, and the steps everybody tells you to do are:
- Re-start your computer in Recovery Mode, by holding down Command-R during boot-up.
- Open Terminal
- Type this command. Exactly, including spaces and quotes: rm "Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
- Then re-start your computer, and you'll be taken into the Setup Assistant in which you can create a new user.
BUT: the problem for me was, it kept returning an error message in Terminal: "No such file or directory" And then I'd reboot, and no dice. Issue still there.
So.... more calls to Apple Support... and more research.... and through trial and error, this is what I figured out.
After going into Recovery Mode, I first went into Disk Utility. For some reason the volume listed as Macintosh HD - Data was showing as "unmounted". So I simply hit the "Mount" button. And THEN I did the above steps, and it worked. Finally. Hallelujah.
It's a major bug. If you're having the same problem, and wanting to throw your computer out of the window, I get it. But hopefully this helps!
Apple, please fix in the next update! Thank you. Happy holidays.
unlocking System preferences